wolfgirl
by Andromedanaea
Summary: a sequel to the Earth's Children series as it comes full-circle. Crossover with Clan of the Cave Bear.
1. Chapter 1

I was very unhappy with the latest book in the the Earth's Children series. For me the series started to go off the rails exponentianlly, starting in book3, and slowly got worse. By the end of the Mammoth hunters, I wanted Ayla to end up with neither man. In book 4, I found myself skipping ahead to look for references to the 1st book. I was bored by the endless descriptions instead of plot. Book 5 dragged on. With my proclivities, you'd think I'd like the Mother's song . . . but I thought it needed to be shortened in order to be usefull. Finally, Book 6, which should have been a picture book of Cave paintings, instead of endless descriptions of them. And when plot started to appear, it didn't go anywhere.

But I remember when Valley of the Horses was the most recent of a 5 book series. So here is my last Chapter of book 5, which ends the series and opens the door for another series.

Wolf-girl

After weeks of traveling North, Ayla and Jondalar were starting to get worried. It had been Jondalars idea to try to esablish contact with the Clan and open trade with them. But they had allready passed deep into Clan territory and failed to locate a single Clan. It had been Ayla who had insisted that they send only a small group. She feared that the Clan might view a large group as invaders. This is why Ayla and Jondalar had come alone, bringing only their daughter, Jonayla with them. She had been taught the Clan signs, as well as the Zelandonii spoken language from birth and was almost a fluent in Clan signs as a Clan child of the same age would be. They had brought their three horses, Whiney, Racer and Gray with them. The two older horses, led by the adults on foot pulled pole-drags loaded with a tent, supplies and trade goods. While Gray carried Jonayla on her back. At 5-years-old, she had learned to ride, and Gray had learned to be ridden. Wolf walked alongside her.

Ending yet another day of Fruitless searching for Clans, the family set up the tent on a flat spot near a river and went to bed.

The next morning, Jonayla woke before her parents. Creepting quietly out of the tent Jonayla snuck down to the river. She knew she wasn't allowed to swim alone, but she didn't think she'd get caught by her parents. The horses were grazing on some grass near the river. Jonayla hadn't bothered to get dresssed before leaving the tent, so she nakedly waded into the water. With a splash, Wolf leapt off the bank of the river to swim beside her. Once she'd gotten waist deep, Jonayla swam further out into the river. The current turned out to be stronger than she expected and she was sweapt downstream. The child enjoyed the feeling of being pulled along by the current as her Wolf swam along side her. But then she became fearful of how far she had traveled from her parents. She paddled over to shore and climbed out, followed by her lupine companion.

"Eeeww!" squeeled Jonayla, as Wolf shook himself, spraying her with water.

"Come on, Wolf!" said Jonayla as she began walked back to the tent where her parents were.

They walked for what seemed like a long time to someone with a 5-year-old attention span. As the tent was nearly within sight, Jonayla heard the distressed neighing of the horses, who had started to run away.

"No! Gray! Come back!" yelled Jonayla as she started running after the horses.

Suddenly, there was a rumbling roar as the ground began shaking! The horses were forgotten as Jonayla began running back to the safety of her parents. The girl had just reached sight of the tent when a stinkhole opened up and swallowed it. As the rumbling died down, and the ground stopping shaking, Jonayla's screams echoed:

"MAMAAAAA!"


	2. Chapter 2: Day 1

WG2

Let me explain what I mean about the series going bad exponentially:

Supose you have a jar. At 11:00 you put a single bacteria cell in the jar. Each minute, the cells divide, doubling the number. At 12:00, the jar is full. . . .

At 11:59 the jar is ½ full . . .

At 11:58 the jar is ¼ full . . .

At 11:57 the jar is 1/8 full . . . .

At 11:56 the jar is 1/16 full

At 11:55 the jar is 1/32 full

At 11:30, you can't even see that there is anything in the jar!

So it was with Earth's children. As I was reading it, I was enjoying it, looking forward to the various plotline seeds bearing fruit. Of seeing things resolved . . . instead, we got the ending of Book 6 . . .

This was mostly intended as a one-shot. I have a few ideas for a continuation. The title gives some clue as to where I would go with this. But If I do more, Ayla will be dead. And it won't be an exact repeat of COTCB. (I hate fics where people go back in time and don't change anything)

And time spent writing this, would be time not spent writing Clanluna. (which I'm enjoying writing)

Wolf-girl

Chapter 2: Day 1

Jonayla ran to the edge of the sinkhole. It was imposibly deep, yet she could make out the crumpled shape of the remains of the tent and a bare leg sticking out of it. She only caught a glimpse of this before the stickhole caved inward on the riverward side and water rushed in to fill it. Wolf whined as he paced around the periphery of the of the pool that was quickly turning into part of the new course of the river.

Jonayla crumpled to the ground by the river and cried. Wolf tried to comfort her by licking the tears from her face, but she just pulled him closer, buried her face in his fur and cried some more. She fell asleep hugging the Wolf. . .

She awoke the to sound of the Wolf growling. It was cold, dark and Wolf was standing in a defensive posture growling at something in the dark. It was a new moon night, and the stars didn't provide a enough light to see what was out there.

The girl felt around on the ground, looking for something to throw at whatever the Wolf was growling at. She found a rock and reared back to pitch it before she stopped herself. She knew from the feel of it that it was the firestone, left by the fire after Jondy had started it the night before. Feeling around some more, she found the broken flint knife that he had used.

CRICK!

She made a spark

CRICK!

She made another spark.

She kept making sparks until one caught on a leaf. She blew on it until she had a flame, then added more leaves. She never did see what had upset the wolf, but she kept feeding the fire until morning.

Once the sun rose, she looked around at what was left. The pile of trade goods was still where it had been left, next to the pole-drags that had been taken off the horses two days ago. The remains from the fire of two nights ago were next to her fire.

She was hungry and thirsty and dirty. . . . the Wolf followed her into the river. The current pulled her along as she swam and washed the dirt and ash off of her. She drank some as she swam too. Finally, she made for shore.

"Eeeeeewwww! Wo-olf!" she complained, as the Wolf shook the water off of himself and onto her. Now that she was no longer dirty or thirsty, she decided to get something to eat. She began looking around until she spotted some berries that she remembered picking with her mother. Not bothering with saving any for later, she ate them as she plucked them, wandering, following the bushes.

When she was finally sated, she looked around. She didn't know where she was, but going downhill was easier. She followed her feet down the hill until she spotted the river. Then turned up stream and walked along the bank.

She'd been walking for a while, when she spotted the dark shape of a cave entrance up the hill. Maybe there were people up there who could help her? Wolf, who had run ahead of her, came back and followed her up the hill. When she got to the entrance of the cave, she stood there trying to see in while her eyes adjusted to the dark. Stepping in, she saw that it oppened up into a wider chamber after the entrance with a small passage in the back of the cave that was too dark to see in. There was no sign of anyone living here. Still, she had been cold last night with only Wolf's fur to warm her and thought this might be a good place to stay tonight.

She went back down the hill to the river and followed the course of the river to new bend in the river that had eaten her parents. Already, she hated this place. But she wanted some of the things in the pile of trade goods. Some furs to sleep in would be nice, and perhaps a knife? She chose a couple of furs, a megaceros antler handled knife and a fire stone. She rolled them all together, wrapped her arms around them and took a few steps before the knife and firestone fell out of the furs, shattering the flint blade of the knife when they hit a rock on the ground. But she was oblivious to this and kept walking with her burden. She was dismayed to find the knife and firestone were missing when she unrolled the furs. So she went back to trade goods and found the firestone and the remains of the knife. Digging throught the trade goods, she found a couple more knives and firestones. This time she carried them back to her cave in her hands. She spent the rest of the day making trips back to carry things to the cave. When she finally finished, she began to get chilly. The sun was starting to get low in the sky. So she gathered a pile of wood and used one of the firestones to start a fire. She had finally gotten it going when Wolf returned to the cave holding a rabbit in his mouth.

"Oh Wolf! You brought us some meat!"

The Wolf didn't resist when she took his kill from his mouth. He was used to sharing with the human members of his pack. With a knife, she crudely skinned and gutted the rabbit, giving the guts to the Wolf, then beheaded the rabbit. She then carved a point on the end of a stick, poked it throught the rabbit, and stuck one end in between a couple of rocks so it would cook over the fire. It fell in the fire several times before she had decided it was cooked enough. She burned her fingers several times before she it was cool enough that she could cut it into pieces and give half of it to the Wolf. The rest, she ate herself. Once she was done, she crawled into the furs with Wolf. She missed her Mama and cried herself to sleep hugging the Wolf.

She awoke, hungry, thristy and dirty. After another morning swim with the Wolf, she walked back upstream eating berries as she went. Wolf ran off and came back with another rabbit. She wished she could help the Wolf hunt. So after cooking the rabbit and sharing it with the Wolf, she looked throught he disorganized pile of trade goods until she found her Mama's spear and spear-thrower. Taking them, she walked up the hill and out of the forrest to the steppe. Once she'd cleared the trees. She decided to practice throwing a spear. But her Mama's spear was just too big for her to throw. It kept falling out of the spear-thrower. Still every time she moved like she was trying to throw the spear, Wolf would run after the downed prey, that turned out to not be there. She'd just given up and thrown the spear down in disgust when she spotted a trio of horses in the distance.

"Gray? . . .

. . .Gray!"

She ran to the horses as Wolf made a long circle and came at them from the other side. When she reached her horse, she hugged her leg before the horse bent its' head closer so she could hug Gray's neck. Racer and Gray still had on their halters and all three horses still had on the colored skins that had been tied to their backs to let strangers know that they were not ordinary horses and not to be hunted. After she and Wolf had greeted the horses, she coaxed Gray to lower herself to the ground as she had been trained, to she could climb on the horse's back. Once Gray had risen to her feet again, the girl began riding her, with the other two horses and the Wolf running along. They had been not been riding for long before the girl spotted a group of people in the distance. So she turned to began riding towards them.


	3. Chapter 3: The Clan

WG3

Wolf-girl

Chapter 3: The Clan

Drek's Clan was returning from the Clan Gathering. They'd done poorly there. Drek had Ranked last in the Leadership competition. His deformed mog-ur was considered to be the lowest Ranked mog-ur. They'd come in the middle the the atheletic competition but still had failed to redeme themselves from being the Last Ranked Clan. They all left the Clan Gathering disheartened and determined to raise their status at the next Clan Gathering. The would redouble their efforts to be the most Clan, Clan at the the Clan Gathering. They would become even more traditionally Clan over the next seven years.

When Drek spotted horses in the distance, he signalled for his Clan to stop. The hunters all gathered around him for instructions.

"_Brorn, Grav, you circle around that way," _signed Drek. _"Brod, Zreb, you circle around that way. mog-ur and I will stay here. Keep a sharp eye on them. When they get close enough, we'll cut the slowest one out of the herd and run it down."_

As the small herd drew closer, it became apparrent that there were only three of them and a wolf was already hunting them. But then they saw that there was something on the back of the gray horse, a little girl of the Others! As they drew closer, they saw that the horse were wearing wraps of some sort on their backs and belts around their heads.

The men of Drek's Clan had difficulty interpreting what they were seeing as the small herd of horses came to a stop in front of them. Then, in a flash, the mog-ur remembered what this was.

"Stop!" shouted the mog-ur, drawing the attention of the other men so that they could see his signs. _"These are spirits! Do not aknowledge them! Do not even look at them. If we are not careful, they will drag us back to the spirit world!" _

"_This girl greets you," _signed the spirit, once she'd realized that the man was signing. _"Greetings! Do any of you understand my signs?" _

"Hello? Hello?" said the girl in the Zelandonii language. _"_Do you understand me? Look at me! I can't do signs if you won't look at me!"

"_Let us resume our journey," _signed Drek._ "There is nothing to hunt here." _

With that, the men jogged back to their places and the women picked up their buddens. The Clan began walking away from the strange spirits.

"Hey! Where are you going?" yelled the girl. _"_Stupid people! Come on wolf."

The girl began riding back to her cave.

"Ouw!" a low hanging branch hit her when they entered the forest. She climbed off the horse and led them back to her cave. Once they were inside the cave, the horses gathered around the girl. They were used to getting a treat when they were led into their stable at the Ninth Cave. She looked around, but she had no food in the cave. She was eating everything as soon as she picked it or Wolf hunted it.

"Sorry, I have nothing to give you."

She now realized that if she wanted to keep the horses, she'd have to feed them. Grabbing a knife, she headed back up the hill to the field to gather some grass. The horses followed her and grazed nearby while she spent the rest of the day cutting stalks of grass, and carrying them down to the cave. By the time she was finished, she was ravenously hungry, but there was nothing for her to eat.

"Wolf, go get a rabbit! Go get a rabbit, Wolf!"

The Wolf just sat there with his tongue hanging out.

Fear griped the girl's heart as she realized that the Wolf wouldn't always hunt when she wanted him to. She'd need to learn to hunt for herself and gather plants to feed herself. She'd work on that tommorow. She pulled to Wolf into her furs and slept, hugging the Wolf.

When she awoke, the fire had gone out and the horses were gone. She was very hungry! She spotted some greens that she remembered picking with her mother so she walked over and ate them right there. She 'd need to gather more . . . and firewood! She spent the rest of the morning gathering greens and berries, digging up roots, and collecting firewood. Wolf stayed in her vicinity but ran around while she did this. In the evening, she spotted the horses on the Tundra and lured them back to the cave with some of the grass she'd collected. Picking up a firestone and a knife, she started making a fire. She had just gotten it going when Wolf showed up, carrying a squirel in his mouth.

"Good Wolf!" she praised the Wolf before taking the squirel from his mouth.

Looking at how small it was, she realized that if she ate any of it, there wouldn't be enough for the Wolf. She have to make her diner from the plants she'd gathered tonight. She really needed to learn to hunt with the Wolf. But her sling had been in the tent when it fell into the hole to be washed away by the river. Then she remembered seeing mama's spear-thrower on the ground when she went to see the horses. Mama and Jondy wouldn't let her have her own spear-thrower. They said she was too young to play with spears. And she hadn't been able to throw mama's spears. . . . but what if she made herself a smaller spears? Maybe then she could use mama's spear thrower? She decided that tommorow she'd make herself a sling and some spears, then, curled up with the wolf and went to sleep.

The next day she made a sling and retrieved her mama's spear and spear-thrower. Over the next few days, she continued to gather grass, plants she could eat and firewood. She also practiced with her sling. Her mama had warned her that she needed to be able to throw one stone acurately before she could learn to throw two, like mama did. She'd already cut up a fur to made her sling and lacings, which she used to attach the spear-heads salvaged from mama and Jondy's spears to put on her own crude spears. The shafts she'd made weren't completely straight, and she didn't put fletching on them. But she had made some crude spears that were small enough that she could use them to learn how to throw spears. Wolf thought sling and spear practice was the funnest game and would bolt off to retrieve the animal that she'd not killed.

Gond was considered ugly by the Clan. He wasn't as ugly as his mother's mate, the mog-ur. But he was still ugly by Clan standards. So he considered himself fortunate to be the mog-ur's acolyte. At 5-years-old, he had the physical and emotional maturity of a 10-year-old of the Others. In two more years, he'd be elgible to go on his manhood hunt. So he was out with his sling practicing. He carried a Clan-style spear and would poke it in the ground to hold it when he spotted a small animal to attack with his sling. Spotting a fox, Gond poked her spear in the ground and pulled a stone out of a fold of his wrap. Winding up, he cast his stone, only to see another stone fly from the left and stun his fox! There was a strange, unearthly sound. Then a wolf emerged from the bushes, grabbed the stunned fox and ran off with it!

"Hey! _Come back here!" _waved Gond before picking up his spear and running after the wolf. It didn't occur to him how dangerous it was to chase a wolf, or to try to take its' prey from it. He'd just come a short way through the bushes when he found himself face-to-face with the horse-girl spirit! She looked very much like when he'd seen her in her half-horse form. Except now he was only seening the girl part of the spirit. She looked like a girl of the Others with golden blonde hair and eyes that were blue, like the sky. She didn't wear a wrap and held a sling in her hand. The Wolf had dropped the fox at her feet and turned menacingly towards Gond, growling!

"!"


End file.
